At the bottom of the Dragon Valley, Venti and Alfia stood only a dozen meters away from the physical embodiment of the world's despair. Under the invisible blanket of wind continuously maintained by the god with his absolute comprehension, their presence was completely erased from the apocalyptic monster's biological detection system. The OEBD merely thought it was the usual valley wind.
The heat radiating from between the dragon's scales was unable to penetrate Venti's conceptual protection. Everything was silent, save for the rumbling sound of the giant's breathing before them.
Venti stared at the black crystal embedded in the chest of the One-Eyed Black Dragon (OEBD), then slowly turned to Alfia.
"Let's do this according to our plan," Venti said in a casual tone, as if he were merely inviting Alfia to brew tea in the afternoon.
Alfia returned the gaze. Behind her cold stare, the Silence could not hide a profound flash of awe. She had pondered the plan Venti laid out over and over in her head, and her final conclusion was always the same.
"More than that, I am amazed at how you could come up with such an idea, Venti," Alfia said, her voice delivered smoothly by the air currents within their bubble.
Alfia was a pure fighter. Her entire life had been spent dominating enemies with the absolute destructive power of magic. However, this heist plan completely overturned all her combat logic. There were no clashes of power, no explosions; only a highly precise exploitation of the enemy's anatomy.
"You seem to be quite the expert at this sort of thing," Alfia added with a probing tone. A knack for designing perfect crime scenarios that was far too neat for a god who supposedly only liked to sing and drink wine.
Venti waved a hand in the air, chuckling softly. "Now, now, don't overthink it, Alfia. Just consider this part of my old song repertoire."
Alfia snorted softly. She didn't press further. When she first heard Venti's plan in its entirety, she was honestly completely taken aback. The tactic would be incredibly risky if executed by laymen, but in the hands of the two of them, Alfia knew and was certain that this heist plan was guaranteed to succeed one hundred percent.
Without wasting another moment, the execution began.
Step one: Make the dragon fall into a much deeper sleep.
With the agility of a Level 8, Alfia shifted from her initial position near its chest, stepping toward the snout of the giant monster whose size rivaled a defensive fortress. The OEBD's exhalations from its nostrils created deadly air pressure. Under the protection of Venti's wind blanket which negated energy detection, Alfia concentrated her focus.
Alfia raised one hand. She did not cast magic to destroy, but rather summoned Aegis Harmonia. She shaped the absolute frequency shield into a very thin, wide layer, then placed it with microscopic precision right around the monster's nostrils.
Its purpose was not to withstand external attacks, but to filter elements from within. That Aegis Harmonia acted as an oxygen filter. With perfect magic control, Alfia manipulated the pure air pressure, restricting the entry of oxygen particles about to be inhaled by the apocalyptic dragon.
This was a process that had to be done with utmost delicacy. Alfia reduced the oxygen supply slowly and gradually.
Due to the continuously decreasing oxygen supply, the dragon's primal brain began to lack the fuel to maintain its level of consciousness. The giant dragon's breathing began to change. Its rumbling, which initially shook the ground, now slowed, lengthened, and sounded increasingly heavy.
The OEBD was forced into a phase of hypoxic sleep—a condition where the creature fell into an incredibly deep slumber, nearly comatose, due to its brain experiencing an extreme oxygen deficit. The dragon's snores now sounded like an engine on the verge of dying. Its consciousness had completely sunk to the bottom of the abyss of nothingness.
Step two: Anesthetize the OEBD's nerves.
With these two layers of the plan, it was certain the OEBD would absolutely not wake up even if its heart were dismantled. Alfia maintained her filter shield and quickly shifted back to Venti's side at the dragon's chest area.
In front of them, the black crystal pulsated. Incredibly thick, purple fleshy veins were firmly embedded, connecting the crystal directly to the dragon's main nervous system.
Alfia pointed her fingertips toward the base of those giant blood vessels. She triggered Silentium Eden. The magic of absolute nullification that had once leveled half of Orario's army was now used not as an annihilating attack, but as an "Anesthesia."
A dense gray light flowed from her hand. Alfia injected Silentium Eden very thinly and carefully directly into the dragon's blood vessels piercing the crystal. The magic-nullifying effect instantly went to work freezing biological signals. She temporarily "numbed" the dragon's entire neural network.
The miasma pulsating in those parasitic veins slowed until it completely stopped. The dragon's chest area was now absolutely anesthetized. The apocalyptic monster would not be able to feel anything in its chest cavity area.
Alfia took a deep breath, looking at Venti with a firm nod. The operation area was fully prepared.
Phase three: The extreme exchange.
Before they had stepped close to this giant, Venti had instructed Alfia to use her physical strength to carve a thick block of obsidian from the cliff walls surrounding the valley. The black metallic stone had been precisely sculpted to possess the exact same weight, dimensions, and density as the black crystal imprisoning Aria.
In the middle of that replacement obsidian stone, there was a hole where Venti had implanted the essence of Aria's spirit—the essence he purposely brought from his original timeline. That essence would act as a decoy radiating an identical energy resonance to fool the dragon's internal sensors.
Alfia placed her right palm on the original crystal nestled between the scales, while her left hand tightly gripped the incredibly heavy replacement obsidian block. Her stance was firmly planted on the obsidian ground.
Venti raised his right hand. The air inside their bubble felt frozen. This was the pinnacle execution of the flawless plan.
Venti began to give the countdown command via finger signals.
His first finger folded. Three.
Alfia's arm muscles tensed to their maximum, concentrating all the pure kinetic power she possessed from being a Level 8.
His second finger folded. Two.
The dragon's snore rumbled softly in its hypoxic coma.
His third finger folded. One!
ZRASHHH!
Alfia's movement surpassed the speed of sound. In a single yank with the force of hundreds of tons, she ripped out the giant crystal imprisoning Aria. The dragon's parasitic veins snapped instantly. Because its nerves had been frozen by the Silentium Eden anesthesia, not a single drop of blood spurted out.
In that exact same millisecond, utilizing the centrifugal momentum of her body, Alfia shoved the replacement stone—which already contained Aria's essence at its core—into the gaping hole in the OEBD's chest with a brutal, highly precise thrust.
BAM!
The giant obsidian stone embedded perfectly between the apocalyptic scales.
The dragon's body jerked slightly. Its heartbeat stopped for one long beat that made the silence of the valley feel deafening.
Then... Thump-thump...
The OEBD's heart resumed beating with a slow, heavy rhythm. Its locally anesthetized nervous system and its brain fast asleep in hypoxia accepted the obsidian stone containing the fake essence as its original heart.
The extreme exchange had succeeded flawlessly.
Alfia released the breath that had been caught in her chest. Wasting no time, she dragged the real black crystal she had just extracted as far away from the dragon's body as possible.
The moment it was cut off from the OEBD's energy supply, the green crystal lost its defense. Its surface cracked in an instant, then shattered into a pile of gray dust scattered across the obsidian floor.
From within the pile of crystal ash, Aria's body was thrown to the ground.
The Great Spirit's skin was as pale as transparent paper. Her spirit existence flickered unsteadily. Because Aria had been held captive inside the OEBD for too long and her energy drained endlessly for a thousand years, her spirit had reached the brink of destruction and was about to vanish.
Venti stepped forward calmly. He had accounted for this from the very beginning due to his experience from his past timeline.
Venti immediately merged the sliver of Aria's pure essence he had brought from his own timeline. He pushed that pale green light essence directly into fading Aria's chest. The fusion reaction of two identical existences produced a brilliant glow of light. The fading process stopped instantly.
Knowing that this small amount of essence would not be enough to sustain Aria's adult human form whose soul had been severely damaged, Venti had to create the most efficient "emergency vessel" so Aria's spirit wouldn't dissipate.
Without using Arcanum or any divine authority, Venti purely utilized his absolute comprehension of the spirit and wind elements. He pressed the pure essence against fading Aria's chest, then gently guided its flow. Venti consciously restructured Aria's scattered spiritual wind, condensing it into a mold of a form he was very familiar with in order to conserve the Great Spirit's remaining life energy.
Under the guidance of Venti's hands, Aria's fading human form shrank rapidly, condensing to follow the structural pattern shaped by the god.
When the green light dimmed, the Aria from Bell's timeline finally regained consciousness. Because it was Venti who reconfigured her form so she could survive, her temporary form now looked exactly like Venti's Wisp form—a palm-sized entity of light spirit with a pair of tiny, transparent wings emitting a green glow.
The little spirit's eyelashes fluttered before finally opening. Her pair of golden eyes looked around in pure confusion. She floated slowly, hovering in the air at the height of Venti's chest.
"You're awake, huh?" greeted Venti with his signature relaxed smile, his tone of voice flowing calmly and warmly like a spring breeze.
The little Aria turned toward the source of the voice. She looked at the black-haired youth with greenish tips in front of her. Her eyes blinked a few times, sensing the aura of absolute protection offered by the youth.
"Yes, even though you are very weak right now, with the passage of time your strength will recover," Venti continued, extending the tip of his index finger toward the little wisp. "This is your temporary form, Aria."
Aria looked down, staring at her pair of tiny hands made of light particles. The shackles of darkness and the pain that had tortured her endlessly for centuries had completely vanished. Slowly, she realized the reality of what was happening; she had truly been saved from that hell.
Bell's timeline's Aria looked at Venti and Alfia in turn, then bowed her tiny body deeply. "Thank you... Thank you so much for saving me."
Aria then touched her own chest. She felt the glow of energy now binding and protecting her existence from fading away. She tilted her head with an innocent gaze filled with confusion.
"I feel that this is my essence... but it seems like something is different, isn't it?" she asked, her voice sounding melodious like the chiming of a wind chime.
Venti nodded, letting an amused smile adorn his face. "That's right. Just consider that your other self has lent it to you so you can survive."
Aria furrowed her tiny brow, trying to digest the strange sentence. However, her thought process was instantly cut off as she reflexively turned to look forward.
Suddenly, all the green light on Aria's body trembled violently. Her eyes widened, filled with pure terror. Before her stretched a wall of pitch-black scales belonging to the giant she could never forget.
"A-Ah...!"
Aria let out a stifled scream. Her tiny body shook as violently as a dry leaf battered by a storm. She retreated backward in a panic in mid-air. Primal trauma gripped her sanity. Because after all, this apocalyptic monster was the one that had slaughtered her hero protector and captured her to be tortured.
Seeing that immense panic, Venti swiftly cupped his hands together, blocking Aria's view of the dragon. He then extended his hand to calm her down.
"Shh... It's alright," Venti whispered very gently. "The OEBD is sleeping very soundly and hasn't realized you've escaped."
The aura of peace from the Wind God managed to slowly chase the terror away from Aria's soul. She steadied her tiny breaths, then clung tightly to Venti's fingers as if those fingers were her only anchor of safety in the universe.
"Now, our business here is finished," Venti said, breaking the tension with a warm, cheerful tone. "Let's go meet your daughter, Ais."
Hearing that single name spoken, the fear surrounding Aria seemed to stop flowing.
The little spirit's body froze. Her golden eyes trembled violently. In the next second, tears made of light crystals streamed heavily down her cheeks. All her fears and suffering evaporated without a trace, replaced by the eternal longing of a mother who had been shackled for a millennium.
Hearing Ais's name, Aria was immediately moved to tears and sobbed. She floated closer to Venti's face, asking with a completely different kind of panic. "Ais is still alive?! How is she doing?! Is my daughter safe?!"
"Your daughter is healthy," Alfia answered casually, though her tone sounded slightly softer than usual. "She has grown up well. She has become a strong, beautiful girl with a very sharp sword."
Alfia smiled faintly, recalling the image of Ais fighting tenaciously at the Orariopiad. "She is not alone. She is surrounded by many friends who love her, and she has someone who will always be by her side to protect her."
Hearing Alfia's answer, Aria broke down in even harder tears. She hugged Venti's finger tightly, pouring out all her joyous emotions. Her eternal waiting inside the belly of hell had been fully repaid. Her daughter was safe. For a mother who had lost everything, there was no salvation more majestic than knowing her own flesh and blood was living happily.
Venti let Aria cry until she calmed down. The god then turned his head, staring at the giant body of the One-Eyed Black Dragon snoring heavily, still ensnared in the oxygen trap and absolute anesthesia from Alfia. The monster's position was truly incredibly vulnerable under their control.
"Hey, Alfia," Venti called out in a casual tone yet carrying a serious question. "The OEBD is helpless right now, isn't it? Want to kill it?"
Venti's offer was not an empty boast. If Alfia unleashed her strongest annihilating magic straight into that chest cavity, which was now biologically unprotected, this apocalyptic dragon could be killed right then and there without any resistance.
Alfia stared at the dragon intently. She closed her eyes for a moment. But when her eyes reopened, clear rationality extinguished the remaining remnants of vengeance in her heart.
"No," Alfia said firmly, shaking her head.
Venti raised his eyebrow, waiting for further explanation.
"Let the Orario adventurers in this timeline defeat it later," Alfia continued, her voice calm yet full of meaning. "Moreover, if the OEBD in this timeline is killed by us today, those Orario adventurers won't have any absolute threat and horror ahead of them."
Alfia realized the fundamental law of the mortal world. Humans can only surpass their limits when faced with despair. If they quietly eliminated this dragon, then the heroes of Orario—Finn, Ottar, Leon, and especially her nephew, Bell—would lose their ultimate test. They needed this dragon as their final stepping stone to prove that the new generation had truly inherited the era of past legends.
Hearing such a harsh view yet one laden with respect toward the future generation, Venti smiled broadly.
"Alright then," Venti agreed, satisfaction clearly depicted on his face. He gently scooped up the little Aria wisp and tucked her safely inside his cloak pocket so the spirit would feel safe and warm.
"Let's head back to Orario."
Alfia nodded. The two of them turned around, turning their backs on the apocalypse-bringing monster that was still sound asleep and completely oblivious. Venti stepped forward, letting the wind currents sweep away their tracks. Under the black sky of the Dragon Valley, the most epic heist in the history of the lower world had concluded, carrying the key to true happiness back to the Labyrinth City.
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